Founder and President of RPG Research. Published under W.A. Hawkes-Robinson.
For three years in a row now, the sales of hobby games including tabletop role-playing games, have been experiencing a significant boom in sales growth, while the video game industry has been down year after year since 2010. Apparently equal to the Pokemon CCG boom of early 2000's, but spread across a broader range rather than a single product, the entire hobby and role-playing gaming industry is benefiting...
Role-playing gaming (RPGing) has its roots as far back as ancient history with the development of war-gaming. War-gaming is the simulation of combat strategies and tactics represented in reduced scale with various rules, often with some sort of randomizing agent such as dice or cards to add an element of “realistic” unpredictability. As long as there has been organized warfare, there appears to have been some form of war-gaming in every culture throughout history. Chess and the Chinese game Go both are very much based on war-gaming, but considered lacking by some because of the lack of unpredictability offered by “true” war-gaming using some degree of randomization. The RPG Research Project Document ID #RPGR-A001-A-20120927A-CC
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson Original Version April 10, 2007 Updated for Creative Commons September 27th, 2012. RPG Research Project Document ID: #RPGR-A00002-D-20120927.CC
Other Minds Magazine Version - by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson
“Hands-On-Adventure” - (ASL signed role playing gaming) - Role-Playing Gaming Adapted for the Deaf Using - American Sign Language - by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson - (c) 2007 - Revised for Creative Commons 2012-10-01
The Potential Benefits and Deficits of Role Playing Gaming by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson April 10, 2007
By W.A. Hawkes-Robison Original Version 2008-11-20 Version 2 2008-12-06 Version 3 2011-12-09 Updated for Creative Commons License: 2012-09-29
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson - Original Version 2008-12-10 - Revised 2011-12-06 - Revised for release under Creative Commons: 2012-09-30
This is an analysis of the report "ALIENATION AND THE GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS" by Lisa A. Derenard and Linda Mannik Kline. Psychological Report, 1990, 66, 1219-1222. O Psychological Reports 1990. The Analysis and commentary on the report is written by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson.
VIDEO - Seattle Children's Hospital, Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association (WSTRA) 16th Annual Conference, Presentation on - "The Therapeutic and Educational Uses of Role-Playing Games (RPG) as Intervention Modalities for Individuals and Groups from the Therapeutic Recreation Perspective" Certified by the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) for Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
I have been mulling over an idea for about half a year now. And it solves a lot of logistics issues in trying to further the research on the effects of role-playing games. An RPG Trailer as a portable facility/office...
I have been mulling over an idea for about half a year now. And it solves a lot of logistics issues in trying to further the research on the effects of role-playing games. An RPG Trailer as a portable facility/office...
Here are some snapshot photos from the RPG Research Project since 2004.
RPG Research has been linking to Abantey's RPG workshop for years. Recently I stumbled across a short 7 minute documentary on their efforts to use role-playing games for educational and other benefits from a summer camp approach in California. Well worth checking out...
If you have a specialized area of knowledge or interest, or just excited about what we are trying to do, please consider joining the 100% volunteer, unpaid, open RPG Research community website. You help is crucial to helping provide your valuable research, community, or professional knowledge and experience to share with the international community in the hopes of helping "float all boats" and improve the world's understanding of role-playing games.
We are all about open, peer-shared, peer-learning, collaborative, community engaged sharing of information and experiences, and our primary website is open to all. We have also setup an internal network to solve some internal organizational challenges, called the RPGSN.net, and wanted to let folks know why.
Have research you would like included in the RPG Research Respository so others can benefit and share with you? Here is where you can submit your research information.
I am currently taking an elective course in Teaching Youth & Teens with ADD / ADHD & Executive Function (EF) Deficits. Basically how to understand and provide appropriate adaptations when teaching this population group. Part of the course includes online discussions. I thought I would save for discussion outside of the classroom, my postings of related topics. I welcome feedback from others...
Charitable research & community programs non-profit Administrative Assistant position.
I had attempted to comment on a posting from the geeksdreamgirl.com website, related to depression and the holidays. This seemed perfectly relevant to the RPG Research Project's goals. Alas, she/they deleted the posting immediately, apparently considering it spam. That is a real shame, since it is so relevant to the goals of the project. Here is what was attempted to be posted in reply...
Originally written in 2004, and periodically tweaked over the years. After decades of using RPGs in educational settings, this was the paper that started the therapeutic focus and building of the RPG Research website. There are very few social table-top recreation activities available that are cooperative rather than competitive in nature. Role playing gaming is by design a cooperative past time, which in and of itself may have significant benefits in the world where everything is becoming competitive at all ages and levels of society...
The first kernels of the RPG Research Project Community began around 1985, and became more formal in 2004...
This is a copy of the posting I made on the rpg.net forum back around June 2012, regarding role-playing gamer stigma. It is a very long post. What have your experiences been with role-playing gaming, gamers, and any social stigma?
Here is another example of how pervasive the inculcation of misinformation, myths, and negative stereotypes about role-playing gamers has become in the united states. This person believed D&D caused her relative to commit a double homicide (mother and unborn child) in Idaho, "she thought his (in her view) 'addiction to D&D led to his killing them'".
Educational event will include a 2-hour introduction presentation that will cover the role-playing game (RPG) terminology/definitions
Further research into different areas of impact for Autism Spectrum Disorder / Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Not Otherwise Specified) related populations.
I just had a surprising dialog with some Avista (my local power company) workers regarding role-playing games...
As has been discussed in many of our weekly broadcasts, research meetings, talk shows, and board meetings, we haven't been happy with D&D 5e's introductory approach for people that have never role-played before. After years of experimentation, months of debate, and weeks of training, we're officially beginning the transition to use BECMI's Basic D&D as introduction to RPG instead of D&D 5e for ages 10+. For ages 4/5+ we're happily still using No Thank You Evil (NTYE).
I have not had a chance to review this book (I hope to do so after Tolkien Moot is over, too much on my plate right now). Since this is somewhat related, I was asked by Mark Lee to spread the word to others, so here is the press release he submitted about this book. -- Announcing the publication of the following title (now available for pre-order): ---
